Researchers and development experts at a briefing on Thursday called for compensation from the countries responsible for environmental degradation with burning huge fuels every year. They made the demand at the news briefing styled ‘Linking aid, FDI, International Institutions to Climate Change’ organised by VOICE, a development organisation, at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.

They also called for reduction in emission of greenhouse gases by polluters like the USA, Australia and China, budgetary allocation for compensation regarding to environmental challenges, ban on ADB aid on Phulbari Coal Project and compensation of $150 million for damage to Sundarban caused by the cyclone. VOICE executive director Ahmed Shopon Mahmud, ActionAid official Amanur Rahman Aman, Professor of Socioeconomics Department at BRAC University Pias Karim and two Canadian researchers Parker Mah and Aude spoke at the news conference.

International financial institutions are impeding the country’s development by imposing conditionalities and interfering into the policy issues, said economist Professor Anu Mohammad. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund caused huge damage to the national economy by imposing policy conditionalities on the country, leading to destruction of the jute sector, he alleged.

A platform will be launched next month in Dhaka to 'monitor' suggestions and projects of the World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund), a dialogue was told yesterday.The proposed platform will examine the two multilateral donor agencies' activities in the last 34 years in Bangladesh, economist Professor Anu Mohammad said.

"The platform will also hold public tribunals to try the World Bank and IMF for their wrong suggestions," added Anu Mohammad.A similar platform was launched in India last month, he said, adding that there have been many such organisations comprising affected people, activists, and academicians in other parts of the world.VOICE, an initiative for research and development, organised the dialogue titled 'How Bank and Fund Stand Against People: Breaking the Cycle of Neo-liberal Hegemony' at the National Press Club in the capital.

The programmes and projects of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are designed to benefit the corporate houses of the developed countries, speakers at a discussion in the city said on Friday. The participants of the discussion on the anti-people policies of the two Bretton Woods institutions, organised by Voice, a non-governmental organisation, suggested more rigorous monitoring of activities of these lending agencies and hinted at the possibility of holding a people’s tribunal.

Right to information is a must for establishing democracy and good governance, said the speakers at a roundtable yesterday.They said corruption could be stopped and social and economic welfare ensured if information is open to all in all fields."Access to information is a fundamental precondition for development and democracy," they added.The roundtable titled 'Information rights to bring transparency, accountability and to prevent corruption' was organised by Campaign on Citizens' Right to Information at the National Press Club in the city. Presiding over the roundtable Prof Muzaffer Ahmad said, "Information is a power and right to information is needed for establishing civic rights."He however said it's not correct that without information right, information would not be available."Information is available around us and we will have to dig it out," Prof Muzaffer added.Badiuzzaman, former director general of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption, said, " For social and economic welfare, right to information is a must.""Free flow of information is a precondition for transparency and good governance," he added.

Economists, bureaucrats and social activists at a roundtable discussion on Saturday called for waging a social movement to protect citizens’ right to information and said the ‘government secrecy act’ and others laws were misused to conceal information of public interest. They also demanded effective steps to check irregularities in public as well as private sectors. The three-day discussion on ‘Right to Information for Transparency, Accountibility and Curbing Corruption’, organised by Campaign on Citizens’ Right to Information, a non-government organisation, concluded at the National Press Club on the day.

The government needs to make draft agreement papers public before striking any deal with foreign companies, speakers told a roundtable in Dhaka yesterday.Had the people been made aware of terms of contracts earlier, the country would have benefited from deals with international oil and gas and mobile phone companies, they added.

"We were able to make the government not sign Policy Support Instrument (PSI) deal with the IMF (International Monitory Fund) because we came to know that it was not beneficial for the country," said economist Professor Abu Ahmed.Campaign on Citizen's Right to Information, a platform for free flow of information, organised the roundtable as part of its three-day programme to mark International Right to Know Day. 'Development and Investment Deals: Citizens' Right to Know' was the title of the discussion presided over by former adviser to the caretaker government SM Shahjahan.

The UN Millennium Development Goals fail to reflect people’s aspirations and, so, civic groups should initiate alternative models of development, said develop practitioners and activists on Saturday. The observations were made at a discussion reviewing Bangla-desh’s progress towards achieving the eight MDGs set by the United Nations in its Millennium Declaration at halfway towards the 2015 deadline. The discussion focused on individual issues but, at the same time, questioned the basic premise of the UN development goals including the first of eliminating poverty and hunger. The other goals include ensuring universal primary education, access to sanitation and clean water, and reducing child mortality.

Speakers at a discussion in Dhaka yesterday asked the government not to sign any agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to protect the country's interests.Referring to the PSI (policy support instrument) agreement proposed by the IMF, they said any kind of parley and revision with the IMF should be transparent and accountable and the government must make public the outcome of any such negotiation.The country's interest should get priority in case of inking any deal with any international financial or donor agency, they suggested, also asking the government not to go by any diktat from either the IMF or the World Bank (WB).The suggestions came at the discussion on Transparency and Accountability of International Financial Institutions organised by Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment (Voice).

Professor Anu Mohammad of the Economics Department at Jahangirnagar University said the problems being faced by different sectors such as jute and energy have been caused by interventions from the two multilateral lending agencies.

Economists have blasted international financial institutions like World Bank and IMF for their roles which often prove fatal, and demanded that IFIs should be asked to compensate for the damages caused by their wrong policy prescriptions. They made the harsh criticism of global lenders’ policies at a discussion on ‘transparency and accountability of international financial institutions’ at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity auditorium Monday. A number of economists, academics and development activists were present at the meeting arranged Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment, a social organisation.